Reeling from coronavirus, Asia's poultry farmers battle bird flu outbreak
18 January, 2021
Asia's chicken farmers are confronting the region's worst bird flu outbreak in years, with the deadly virus affecting farms stretching from Japan to India, roiling some poultry prices and showing no signs of easing.
A lot more than 20 million chickens have already been destroyed in South Korea and Japan since November. The highly pathogenic H5N8 virus the other day reached India, the world's No. 6 producer, and was already reported in 10 states.
While bird flu is common in Asia at the moment of year due to migratory bird patterns, new strains of the virus have evolved to be more lethal in wild birds, making countries on flight pathways particularly vulnerable, say experts.
"This is one of the worst outbreaks ever in India," said Mohinder Oberoi, an Indian animal health expert and former advisor to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
"There's lots of disease in crows and ducks. Folks are scared of the condition in crows. They know they fly far and think they'll infect their poultry or even people."
The Asian outbreak comes as Europe suffers its worst bird flu outbreak in years, and follows on the heels of COVID-19, which hurt poultry sales in early stages occasionally amid false disease concerns but is currently driving up demand because of more home cooking.
Chicken prices in India fell almost a third the other day as wary consumers, increasingly nervous about disease since the pandemic, steered clear of the meat.
Bird flu cannot infect persons through poultry consumption, and the H5N8 virus isn't known to have ever infected humans, but individuals are still fearful, said Uddhav Ahire, chairman of Anand Agro Group, a poultry company located in the western city of Nashik.
Live chicken prices already are as low as 58 Indian rupees (79 cents) a kilogram, below the price tag on production, he said.
In South Korea and Japan, no market impact has been seen yet, officials said, with more robust demand for chicken meat for home cooked meals during lockdowns having a larger effect on prices.
VIRUS EVOLUTION
The rapid and wide geographic spread of the latest outbreaks make this among the worst waves in Asia because the early 2000s.
In Japan, where outbreaks have already been reported from Chiba near Tokyo to a lot more than 1,000 km (620 miles) away in Miyazaki in Kyushu in only 8 weeks, fresh cases remain occurring.
"We can't say threat of the further spread of bird flu has diminished as the migration season for wild birds will continue till March, as well as April occasionally," said an animal health official in the agriculture ministry.
The H5N8 viruses detected in Japan and Korea are incredibly similar to those that spread through Europe in 2019, which in turn evolved from viruses which were prevalent in 2014, said Filip Claes, head of the FAO's Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD).
A different variant circulating in Europe since late 2020 can be causing significant damage.
The brand new strains are leading to more harm now they are more lethal in wild birds, said Holly Shelton, influenza expert at Britain's Pirbright Institute.
"It's quite clear that virus has generated itself in the open bird population therefore now there's a larger propensity for this to spill over back to poultry farms," she said.
A compulsory flu vaccination for poultry in China has protected the region's top producer, despite the fact that the virus has killed wild swans there.
Indonesia, Asia's No.2 producer, is only a short-term transit point for wild birds, reducing its risk of infection, said Fadjar Sumping Tjatur Rassa, director of animal health at the Agriculture Ministry.
Still, the united states has banned live bird imports from countries with H5N8 and create a surveillance system for early detection of the virus, he said.
Without major bird flight pathways over Southeast Asia, countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have up to now been spared H5N8 outbreaks, but face risks from the movement of people and goods.
"It'll keep spreading until another virus comes along to replace it," said Shelton.
Source: japantoday.com